Bread. It’s lovely isn’t it? This bread is pretty darn awesome, it’s the kind of bread that makes a satisfying crunch sound as you slice it- the kind of bread DREAMS are made of. Hearty, wholesome and fully of nutty tasting seeds. I am using oil instead of flour to knead my bread, this is great for when making wholemeal breads as they need more liquid to keep nice and light, using flour often means you can add too much extra flour during the kneading process, if you’re not careful, and this can make a loaf too dry! You don’t want that do you?
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups strong wholemeal bread flour
1 1/2 cups tepid water (or cold if you have extra time to let it prove and develop)
1 tbsp active dried yeast
2 tsp unrefined sugar (can sub regular sugar, or agave)
1/2 tsp of fine sea salt
1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing work surface (instead of kneading on floured surface)
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup flax seeds/ linseed
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1/2 tsp caraway seeds
for the topping:
2 tbsp water
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
approx 2 tbsp rice flour, or more to make a think paste
up too 1/4 cup oats
Method:
Combine the yeast, water and flour in a mixing bowl, just fold over a few times using a rubber spatula, then add the sugar, all the seeds, caraway and salt. This is a wet dough so you need to “stretch and fold” it in the bowl to get it going before kneading it on an oiled surface, you do this by reaching your spatula to the bottom of the bowl and dragging the dough up before fording it over itself, then turn the bowl 45 degrees and do it again, repeat for a few minutes until the gluten has been worked and your dough stay together, turn the dough out onto an oiled surface and knead for about 8- 10 minutes until the dough springs back when you press into it. Grab a bowl and pour in about 1 tbsp olive oil, turn the dough around in the oil, cover and leave to prove for 1-2hrs until doubled in size.
after shaping.
Once the dough has doubled in size, punch it back down and knead for a minute or so, shape into a ball and place into an oiled deep 8″ cake tin. Whisk together the water, sesame oil and rice flour for the topping and paste over the top of the dough, now sprinkle over the oats and gently press into the paste.
After second rise.
Allow to rise back up in a warm place until it has doubled again in size. Preheat the oven to 220c/420f and place a roasting tin in the bottom of the oven to heat up, once the tin is hot fill with a pint or two of freshly boiled water (wear oven gloves and be super careful when doing this!) Bake the bread for 30-40 minutes, until a nice dark golden brown and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the base. Remove from pan and allow to cool completely before slicing.
Once completely cooled transfer to an air tight container and the bread should be good for a couple of days.
That looks gorgeous!
Thanks! 🙂
i love how you shaped it!
I’m into baking home-made ‘artisan’ breads at the moment, so many different things to try and this loaf looks fabulous!
I love ‘artisan’ bakes, they are so beautiful! Thank you!
It looks sooooo good i wanna do it!!!
Kewl, let me know if you try it!
I can really appreciate the work that goes into making this bread. The explanation is great I can’t wait. Sometimes I look at making bread as an art project but then when I’m finished I don’t want to share.
That’s not lovely bread – that is crazy-lovely bread! Okay, but you didn’t just shape it into a ball, you made a pretty kind if braid thing. How’d you do it?
I kinda tied it into a knot like a pretzel then pulled one of the over hanging bits underneath and the other over the top, hope that explanation made sense? Kinda like doing Rosette dinner rolls but not??? I am the worst at explaining things……
Yeah, yeah – I get it. I’ve made pretzels before so I’ll just proceed like that and see how it goes!
I use your blog to daydream in all my gluteny, soy-ish dreams of yesteryear.This bread looks perfect. I want to dive right into it.
I have an Idea for a gluten free- soy free bread that’s a bit different, but it may take a few trails! Hopefully it will be nice and flavorful!
I hope so too. You can come up with the recipe and do all the hard work so I can make it. I’ve attempted some gluten-free yeasted bread and it has all been in vain (sadly, because the ingredients are so expensive). If any chef can do it – it’s you! 😉
I am going to have to start approaching your recipes with my hand over my eyes (difficult to type but whatchagonnado?!!!). Now that it is real soup eating weather here in Tasmania, I am going to have to start messing about with bread worth eating again. This looks like something perfect to dunk in large hand torn chunks (we live caveman like down here) and dipped into some wonderful soup that has been simmering on Brunhilda’s back burner all day. I made just such a soup the day before yesterday. I still have most of it and this bread will be all I have to bake to give us a meal worth remembering tonight :). Cheers for this one Alex, we owe you one 🙂
Yum! This is definitely on my to-do list for this weekend. I bet it would be wonderful with avocado 🙂
I love the shape! A friend showed me the trick about kneading wholemeal bread with oil! It works well!
Cause wholemeal bread is sooo greedy when it comes to moisture, apart from wholemeal spelt (love spelt forevz!)
I’m so lazy, I just wanna bake with wheat because I know it and love it and it knows me and loves me back…
Yeah wheat treats me well too! My fav flour is this english heritage blend but nothing beats wheat for versatility!
A stunning & well formed special shaped bread! I love it!